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904diva
Regular Poster
Username: 904diva
Post Number: 39
Registered: 06-2008
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, March 05, 2009 - 10:01 am: | 
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I had this wonderful book idea that was eating away at me. I finally wrote my manuscript! It's great my friends and family say. But I can't get published and can't afford to self publish! I've tried the normal channels... sending my manuscript out to agents and publishers with no success. Any words of encouragement out there? Any ideas? |
Carey
AALBC .com Platinum Poster
Username: Carey
Post Number: 1740
Registered: 05-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, March 05, 2009 - 11:11 am: |
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Hello
Some say that discouragement can be a good thing. You are in a valley but don't lay there. Lawd knows I could write a book about discouragement. Go through your valley and reap the rewards of having faith and belief in yourself. Keep crying, keep writng and keep going.
Remember Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz. She found herself in a strange place with men without a brain, a heart or much courage. She clicked her heals and found that there was no place like home. It's in your home -- your heart. Don't let others discourage you, Diva.
That's what "they" tell me. |
Cynique
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Cynique
Post Number: 13561
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, March 05, 2009 - 01:04 pm: |
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Have you tried the subsidy publishers, with whom you would split royalies 60/40? Blackbooksplus claim they will publish and market your book, plus design its cover for a total cost of about $575, but you are required to purchase 50 copies of the first printing at 30% off of the list price. Yes, they are a vanity publisher, but if what they promise is true, then you can't beat that price. |
Hen81
Veteran Poster
Username: Hen81
Post Number: 186
Registered: 09-2007
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, March 05, 2009 - 02:50 pm: |
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There are outlets that will publish for no to little cost. One is Lulu.com and another is wordclay. If you truly are at the point to go that route, then look at those sites and learn all that you can. Before doing anything, write up a marketing plan, that will be all up to you to execute.
You can keep trying, maybe small press publishers if you have not tried that route.
www.dtpollard.com |
A_womon
AALBC .com Platinum Poster
Username: A_womon
Post Number: 2565
Registered: 05-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, March 06, 2009 - 10:21 am: |
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Have you done any rewrites? Once you've been rejected by an agent or publisher it's time to take a hard look at what you've written and rework your material before you send it out again.
Have someone outside your family and friends read it and give you an honest critique of your work and rework it.
Then send it out again. Don't give up! There are published authors who were rejected hundreds of times before they were picked up! |
Chrishayden
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Chrishayden
Post Number: 7796
Registered: 03-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, March 06, 2009 - 10:38 am: |
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Go back and see if anybody said why they didn't accept your manuscript and see if you can fix that and see if they'll t ake it then.
Start thinking of what, if anything you did wrong.
Start writing another manuscript. Many writers its their third and fourth or even more manuscripts that get accepted.
Then the earlier ones oddly enough find a home. By the time Jack Kerouac got On The Road accepted--he had written alost ten or 11 manuscripts, all of which got published when On the Road--one of the first he ever did, got so famous.
One thing that got him over is that he had all these unpublished manuscripts he was literally torturing himself physically and mentallly to write--and it was Alan Ginsberg who pushed and pushed and finally got a publisher to accept it.
Despite the legend that he wrote it all on one roll of paper on benzedrine, he and Ginsberg and Burroughs and all his pals in the Beats went over those manuscripts. Ginsberg typed a lot of it for him.
The burst of creativity thang was good hype.
Don't put all your egg in one basket. These folks wanna know you can write more than one book. |
Chrishayden
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Chrishayden
Post Number: 7797
Registered: 03-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, March 06, 2009 - 10:40 am: |
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I guess I am saying that, if you can, you need to get you a rabbi--could be an academician. Somebody in journalism. Some crazed poet. Not another writer. Most of them will cut your throat. Unless this writer is a friend or relative.
Somebody in the publishing game. Can be just a secretary. Samuel R. Delaney got published cuz his then wife was working as a secretary at the publishers and was able to stay on them to accept his novel. |
A_womon
AALBC .com Platinum Poster
Username: A_womon
Post Number: 2567
Registered: 05-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, March 06, 2009 - 01:21 pm: |
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"Not another writer. Most of them will cut your throat. Unless this writer is a friend or relative."
This has definitely NOT been my experience! Talk to other published writers (there are many on Facebook, by the way) Ask them what steps they took to get published. Most are very free and very giving with advice!
I have gotten many, many valuable tips from other writers!!!! |
Chrishayden
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Chrishayden
Post Number: 7802
Registered: 03-2004
Rating: 
Votes: 2 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, March 07, 2009 - 10:39 am: |
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This has definitely NOT been my experience! Talk to other published writers (there are many on Facebook, by the way) Ask them what steps they took to get published. Most are very free and very giving with advice!
I have gotten many, many valuable tips from other writers!!!!
(Have any of them gotten you an agent, a contract or published?) |
Cynique
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Cynique
Post Number: 13574
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, March 07, 2009 - 12:07 pm: |
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You are so clueless about what goes on here, chrishayden. You should never ask questions that you don't know the answer to. |
A_womon
AALBC .com Platinum Poster
Username: A_womon
Post Number: 2568
Registered: 05-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, March 08, 2009 - 05:23 pm: |
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"Have any of them gotten you an agent, a contract or published?"
No and I never asked them to. But I have ALL of the above so evidently the advice they gave me Had to be pretty damned good!
Sorry you can't say the same, Chris Hayden. |
904diva
Regular Poster
Username: 904diva
Post Number: 40
Registered: 06-2008
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, March 11, 2009 - 12:52 pm: |
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Thank you everybody! Your advice is really helpful. I've even joined some writer groups on Facebook! |
904diva
Regular Poster
Username: 904diva
Post Number: 41
Registered: 06-2008
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, March 13, 2009 - 07:23 pm: |
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I looked at Blackbooksplus.com and they publish through ENAZ Publishing. I thought I read somehwere that they weren't a good fit. Maybe it was another one. Anyone heard of them? Are they legitimate? |
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